There is no minimum size requirements on a room beyond the space needed to place the Deed, light source, door, and a single Tenant. The door can also be Wired in a way to prevent the Tenant from opening it if the player is feeling cruel. The upper limit of an enclosed area is currently unknown.

The Colony Deed also scans all objects within the area to determine what type of Tenant it will summon. Every object has one or more Tags attached to it, and the number of "blocks" those objects take up is tallied. If the objects placed in a structure meet the requirements for more than one type, then the Tenant with a highest priority number will spawn.

For a list of all available Tenants and their specific requirements, see the Tenant page.

Once placed and a Tenant is summoned, the Colony Deed will scan the room on a regular basis to make sure the bare minimum requirements for that Tenant are met, and only those requirements. Objects can be added or removed at will, and as long as the specific Tenant's base needs are met, they will be happy. When trying to obtain a specific Tenant type, place only the objects required, then add any extra items that might interfere with that after the Tenant has arrived (such as Storage objects, which tend to summon generic Merchant Tenants).

Modes

Scanning

The deed is scanning walls and objects up to 500 tiles away. Ship walls and windows are valid background walls. There can be only 1 valid colony deed within each enclosed space.

Happy

Indicates that a tenant is alive and happy, with all required objects present and its housing intact.

Unhappy

Indicates there are objects missing or the house needs repair. Accompanied by the tenant crying. If the reason the tenant is unhappy is not addressed within 45 seconds the tenant will leave. Tenants pay no rent while unhappy.

Beacon

If there is a tenant, then interacting with the spawner activates a beacon, calling the tenant back to the spawner.

Rent Due

Indicates that the tenant's rent is available for pickup. After interacting with the spawner the tenant will be called home to pay rent. How much rent a tenant pays and how often they pay it is dependent on the type of tenant.

Error

Indicates that the structure scan failed because the requirements were not met for any tenant to spawn.

Restore

Indicates the tenant has been killed and will be revived in 5 to 10 seconds. The deed checks tenant vitals every 1 to 2 seconds.

Vacated

Note: This mode is currently only available when set true in the Colony Deed object file. (Default: false)

When vacated mode is active the tenant called by the first successful scan becomes the only tenant that can ever be called by that spawner. If the player removes a required item from the structure, that tenant will leave. However, instead of scanning and possibly calling a different type of tenant, the spawner will stay in vacated mode until the original requirements are met again, allowing the original tenant to be spawned.